#corruption caucus

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 19, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

House Republicans appear to be barreling toward a government shutdown, unable to agree even to debate a bill to fund the military. That rejection made Republican leadership pull from the floor a continuing resolution to fund the government into October. Extremist members simply refuse to agree to any bill that doesn’t cave to their demands. And, as NBC News reporters note, “The House [Republican] chaos is worse than it may appear.” The bills over which they are currently fighting cannot possibly pass the Senate. Government funding ends on September 30.

And so a small minority of extremists are threatening to shut down our government. Such a shutdown would have global as well as domestic repercussions: the Pentagon warned that a government shutdown would disrupt U.S. military aid to Ukraine, including training for military forces. Hamstringing our ability to help Ukraine stand against Russia, refusing to fund the Pentagon, and Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville’s hold on military promotions that has left more than 300 top military positions vacant all undermine our national security. This is an astonishing position for Republicans, who used to pride themselves on their support for the military. 

That such a small number of extremists can shut down our country speaks to the power of voting. Four days ago, Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off a month-long tour of college campuses to mobilize younger voters to “fight for our freedoms.” Today is National Voter Registration Day, and in Reading, Pennsylvania, she noted that young people have spent their whole lives in the climate crisis, have seen the Supreme Court stop recognizing the constitutional right to abortion, and have spent their earlier years practicing active shooter drills. They are now stepping up to lead the country toward solutions.

Harris told a cheering, overflow audience at the Reading Area Community College that voting “determines whether the person who is holding elected office is going to fight for your freedoms and rights or not. Whether that be the freedom that you should have to just be free from attack, free from hate, free from gun violence, free from bias, free to love who you love and be open about it, free to have access to the ballot box without people obstructing your ability to exercise your civic right to vote, in terms of who will be the people holding elected office and leading your country.” 

The political power of young voters will be important in determining the outcome of the 2024 elections. In Pennsylvania today, Democratic governor Josh Shapiro announced automatic voter registration when people are getting or renewing a driver’s license. The governor tweeted: “We got traffic moving on I-95 in just 12 days. We delivered universal free breakfast for 1.7 million students. And today, we implemented automatic voter registration. There’s more to do, but we’re getting stuff done in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

In Congress today, the Democrats, led by Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL) reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which passed the House in 2021 but was stopped by a Republican filibuster in the Senate. 

This measure would restore and modernize the 1965 Voting Rights Act after the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision gutted it. Until that decision, Congress had regularly reauthorized the Voting Rights Act on a bipartisan basis, but as soon as the decision was handed down, Republican-dominated state legislatures passed voter suppression laws, gerrymandered their states, and closed polling sites, measures that made it more difficult for Black Americans, many of whom backed Democrats, to vote. In the decade since the decision, Sewell noted, at least 29 states have passed a total of almost 100 laws restricting voting.

Sewell represents Selma, Alabama, where civil rights activist and, later, Georgia representative John R. Lewis was beaten by law enforcement officers when he crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge with other civil rights activists marching for the right to vote. She noted, “Generations of Americans—many in my hometown of Selma, Alabama—marched, fought, and even died for the equal right of all Americans to vote. But today, their legacy and our very democracy are under attack as MAGA extremists target voters with new laws to restrict voting access. Ten years after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the fight for voting rights has never been more urgent.”

The reason for voter suppression was made clear again today when, in a pattern that has continued since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, no longer recognizing the constitutional right to abortion, Democrats won two elections. In New Hampshire, Democrat Hal Rafter flipped a state House seat formerly held by a Republican. And in Pennsylvania, Democrat Lindsay Powell won a special election in Pittsburgh, enabling Democrats to hold control of the Pennsylvania House.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters from an American #Heather Cox Richardson #House Republicans #Government Shutdown #corruption caucus #MAGA extremists #voter suppression #US Military

[hedgewitchgarden]

transcript:

Christopher Ingraha… @_cingraham Rapist facing 91 felony charges wins lowa caucus

#us politics #american politics #presidential election 2024 #iowa caucus #corruption in us politics

[tomorrowusa]

You can often judge people by their associates.

Santos' major backers include a migrant smuggler, an unlikely Trump donor, the cousin of a sanctioned Russian oligarch and a convicted felon.

A controversial donor, who along with his apparent domestic partner gave a combined $34,500 to Santos, is Andrew Intrater, the CEO of a company which once had ties to a sanctioned Russian oligarch Intrater is the CEO of Sparrow Capital — an investment firm formerly known as Columbus Nova. Prior to the imposition of sanctions on the oligarch in 2018, it was listed in regulatory filings as an affiliate of Viktor Vekselberg's Renova Group, an aluminum, energy and telecom conglomerate.

[ ... ]

Intrater is a prolific donor to Republican candidates and causes — he paid $250,000 to attend former President Donald Trump's inauguration in January 2017. 

So there’s an indirect tie to Putin. That gives Santos something else in common with Trump.

Aren’t foreign nationals prohibited from making campaign donations?

Rocco Oppedisano's family was visibly involved with Santos's campaign. Reportedly an Italian national, the 54-year-old, donated $500 to a victory committee benefiting Santos' campaign in September according to FEC records. That donation to the son of Brazilian immigrants who campaigned as tough on immigration, drew attention after the Daily Beast reported that Oppedisano had pleaded guilty to smuggling undocumented migrants into the U.S. in 2019. A further review of Oppedisano's court records show his criminal record also includes convictions for grand larceny, DWIs, and possession of ammunition by a convicted felon. 

It seems that Oppedisano was smuggling migrants to Ron DeSantis’s Florida.

When Oppedisano was arrested on his 63-foot Sunseeker yacht, the INXS FINALLY, in December 2019 off the coast of Miami, the Coast Guard found he was smuggling over a dozen undocumented migrants from the Bahamas to Florida. They also said they found over $200,000 in U.S. and Bahamian currency hidden behind a panel in a closet on board.

Yes, anti-immigrant Republicans are smuggling migrants into the US for cash. So what else is new?

But wait, there’s more!

In his May 2020 campaign disclosure filings, he claimed to have no assets and a $55,000 salary from a previous employer. However, in disclosures filed just weeks before election day for his latest campaign, Santos claimed to have earned $750,000 in annual salary for the period between January 2021 and December 2022, as well as millions in dividends from his company, Devolder Organization LLC.

As they said in the film All the President’s Men, “follow the money”.

#george santos #corruption #campaign contributions #andrew intrater #russia #donald trump #rocco oppedisano #migrant smuggling #campaign disclosure filings #devolder organization llc #ny-03 #118th congress #us house of representatives #house gop caucus

[headlinehorizon]

Senator Menendez Vows to Stay on Amid Corruption Charges

https://headlinehorizon.com/Politics/Senate/679

Read about Senator Menendez's bold decision to remain in office despite facing corruption charges. Get the latest news on this headline horizon.

#headline horizon #news #latest news #Senator Bob Menendez #corruption charges #Democratic Senate Caucus

[wilwheaton]

The congressional party is controlled and run by the hard right minority variously called the Tea Party or Freedom Caucus. But they are a bit too hot for national public consumption. They also rely on the idea that their far right policy agenda has broad public support but is held back by a corrupt/bureaucratic establishment. For both of these reasons a system was developed in which this far right group runs the caucus, but from the background, while it is nominally run by a mainstreamish Republican leader. Under John Boehner, Paul Ryan or Kevin McCarthy this basic dynamic remained more or less the same. It works for everybody because the Freedom Party calls the shots while the party maintains broad electoral viability via figureheadish leadership.

No Plans To Veer From The McCarthy Punishment Playbook

[qqueenofhades]

This may be a stupid question but do you really believe MTG is funded by Putin? In my head she's too fucking stupid to be calculating enough to actually enrich herself.

I don't know if she is actually getting money from the Kremlin or she's just a moron who loves to believe whatever conspiracy theorist nonsense she's told, but I think it's pretty clear she is either being handled fairly directly by Russian intelligence or is closely plugged into sophisticated Russian propaganda systems. Example A, Marge submitting an amendment to the Ukrainian aid bill insisting that aid not be disbursed until the Ukrainian government allegedly stopped "oppressing Hungarians in Transcarpathia." This is a key part of the Orban regime's anti-Ukraine talking points that has in turn been directly amplified by Russia, but it is so specific and so obscure (not to mention, there's literally zero chance Marge knows what any of those words or issues mean, or could find Transcarpathia on a map) that there's no way she organically came up with it on her own. She's also been otherwise echoing word-for-word Russian propaganda about them being "the defenders of Christianity" by invading Ukraine, which is one of Putin's preferred/favorite narratives and plays into the function of the Russian Orthodox Church as a Kremlin booster. Hence, if Marge is directly repeating Putin's personal justifications, I'd say it is more likely than not that she's getting something out of it.

As I have said before, it is pretty clear that Putin is ordering Trump to get the House GOP to stall Ukraine aid in exchange for help in the election, and there is a significant chunk of the House GOP that is eager to suckle at the Russian propaganda teat in all circumstances. (See: Hunter Biden's laptop being a Russian disinformation operation from the start that got exposed when the House GOP impeachment effort went up in flames.) We have also consistently had networks of Russian agents and Russian money be exposed in Europe, where they are offering financial incentives to EU politicians to serve as Kremlin shills. Russian dirty money has beyond doubt entered the Republican Party at many, many levels; we had that whole investigation about how Trump and the Russians have been working in concert for a long time. Now, because getting Trump in power again is so important for the Russians, and the Russians' help is so important for Trump in trying to stay out of jail, the corruption is pretty systemic.

In short, I figure it is only a matter of time if/when we find out that the most stridently pro-Russian members of the Treason Caucus are actually being paid by or otherwise benefiting from Russian lobbyists, because they are fascist traitors who love money, will kiss Trump's ass in any circumstances, and are willing to do anything in the name of undermining America, Ukraine, Biden, and Western democracy in general. We know it is the way Russian destabilization, disinformation, and influence operations customarily work, and that they have previously and consistently worked in cahoots with MAGA, so yeah. If Marge and Co. aren't active Russian assets, financially or otherwise, I would be very surprised.

#stephenroot #ask #politics for ts #russia ukraine war

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

He was pressured into this by the RepubliKKKan “No-Freedom Caucus” led by a charge from Matt Gaetz. If you remember the 15 votes it took to get McCarthy into the Speaker’s seat, one of the conditions was that McCarthy could be easily removed if he didn’t bow to the will of the extremists. Now the extremists are cashing in on their threat to remove Qevin. McCarthy did however manage to reduce their demands from a full blown impeachment to an inquiry.

Let’s be clear, most RepubliKKKans don’t want this as the electorate doesn’t like this unnecessary drama and it will hurt the GQP in their re-election bids. In fact that is why they only have a four seat majority in the House, because they were too extreme and threatening for a nation that wants stability and order. That’s the main reason Biden was elected because he promised a return to sanity which independents and older RepubliKKKans, an all Democrats, wanted.

Trump pushed the extremists to move towards impeachment because he wants to muddy the waters. Trump wants to be able to equate his impeachments and indictments with a possible Biden case. Trump wants to say he’s corrupt too so what’s the big deal. Even though Biden is not and the RepubliKKKans are manufacturing fake outrage, innuendo, and slander to drive their criminal agenda.

Eff Gaetz, Greene, Boebert, Higgins, Burchett, and all the other racist traitors in the GQP.

🖕🤡

[greater-than-the-sword]

"The System has failed" is a self fulfilling prophecy because it stops people who dislike the state of the current System from entering and changing it, further abandoning the System to those who will make it more corrupt and impenetrable. It's easier to be an armchair radical than an election worker. Easier to not vote than volunteer for the caucus

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jonathan Nicholson at HuffPost:

Soon after Iran’s April 13 attempted airstrike on Israel — a massive bombardment of about 300 missiles and drones — a Ukrainian YouTuber couldn’t help but notice the difference in global reaction. U.S. forces, including fighter jets, joined by French and British forces, helped Israel down almost all of the incoming fire in an impressive display of military resources and Western know-how. It was a lesson not lost on the Ukrainians. A Ukrainian-born YouTuber who goes by Yewleea, who says she left New York to return to her home country to help with the war, called it “kind of incredibly fucking hypocritical,” given Israel’s state-of-the-art air defense system and unrealized Western promises of aid to Ukraine. “That was done specifically to make a point,” she said in a livestream. “They didn’t need the help. Ukraine does need the help. And Ukraine was promised all the help. Yet we’re not receiving it.”

That same attack, though, ultimately ended up freeing about $60.8 billion in U.S. military and economic aid for the beleaguered Eastern European country by pushing the stalled funding to the forefront in Washington. A week after Ukrainians saw footage of the global powers rushing to knock out of the sky the same kind of Iranian Shahed drones they face nightly alone, many tuned into C-SPAN to watch 72% of the House vote Saturday, after months of delay, to give Ukraine the desperately needed aid. “It’s been said it’s never too late to do the right thing. Well, we’re coming really close,” said Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), a co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, on the House floor. But the road to get there, for Ukrainians and their allies, began with the Iran attack and the world’s reaction to it. “This night Ukrainians got a clear view of what we truly mean for the US. We’re not allies, never have been,” Stas Olenchenko, a Kyiv-born analyst living in Europe, posted on social media.

[...] “Unfortunately, in Ukraine and our part of Europe, we do not have the level of defense that we saw in the Middle East a few days ago. Our Ukrainian sky and our neighbors’ skies deserve the same level of security,” he said. “And I appreciate everyone who sees our need for security as a need for equal security for all, because all lives are equally valuable.” The White House greeted the complaint by noting how much aid had already been sent to Ukraine or saying there were substantive differences between the two situations.

[...] Neither Ukraine or Israel is in NATO. While Ukraine has, like many post-Soviet countries, had big issues with corruption, its president, unlike Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, has not entered the fifth year of a corruption trial. In terms of longevity, the U.S. has recognized Israel since 1948, within minutes of the Jewish state’s creation. But it also signed the Budapest memorandum in 1994, convincing Ukraine to abandon its nuclear weapons. On Tuesday, after a pro-Ukraine rally on the U.S. Capitol grounds, Daniel Balson, director of public engagement with the advocacy group Razom for Ukraine, said Ukrainians didn’t “begrudge” the help Israel received. “It simply reinforces the fact that with additional ammunition, both for the fighting on the front as well as for air defenses, there could be a very different story coming out of Ukraine today,” Balson said.

The news that both houses of Congress voting to fund aid to Ukraine has been greeted with cheers in Ukraine.

#Ukraine #Foreign Aid #118th Congress #Russian Invasion of Ukraine #Foreign Policy #Ukraine Aid #Israel/Hamas War #Israel

[warsofasoiaf]

What do you think the ramifications will be for the GOP for blocking aid to Ukraine down the line? They certainly have a hard right vocal minority who support that, but most Americans generally sympathize with countries being invaded so will this impact the elections in any meaningful way? And is it the association between Biden and Ukraine that gets that base's opposition or their sympathies with the right wingish, culturally conservative Russian regime?

I don't think it will have much impact on the election outside of individuals who care significantly about foreign policy and support the U.S.'s current alliances, who are unlikely to vote for Trump given his foreign policy stances. Support for Ukraine is declining in the United States, first because the longer something drags on for, the less support it gets, but disinformation is being continually repeated about how the Ukraine aid is going to oligarch mansions and weapons are ending up being sold on the black market. These have been exposed, either as unfriendly psy-ops or just bone ignorance, but repeat something enough times and people start to believe it. People don't have the time to research everything, so they'll just accept what they hear as the truth, because surely, if people keep saying it, it can't be wrong, right? The biggest things that I think will determine voter outcome in 2024 are culture war stuff (which will drive turnout on both sides, favoring Democrats because their policy positions are more popular overall) and the economy (which will favor Republicans due to the inflation problem).

I mentioned before what I think were some of the Freedom Caucus/MAGA-type opposition to supporting Ukraine. I don't believe that any of them actually believe the aid is being siphoned off by corrupt oligarchs (because Ukrainian aid is actually highly audited and controlled and the details of which are included in the Congressional documentation), due to concerns about federal spending (both because the money portion of aid is actually spent in the United States replenishing stocks while older equipment is sent to Ukraine and because they tend to be quite profligate spenders themselves), or because of a commitment towards peace and de-escalation (because they are supportive of military intervention against the cartels in Mexico). I think most of it is political opportunism - both Biden and conventional Republicans have identified with the Ukrainian cause and so they place themselves in opposition. They hope for a stalemate or Ukrainian defeat so that they can point to their opponents and see: "Look at all we wasted on this boondoggle!" For the really hardline crowd, I think they support Putin's policy positions on the culture war, have a fondness for Putin because Trump himself is quite fond of him, and believe that Putin helped get Trump elected and so identify with Putin's causes in the hopes that they can benefit from Russian troll farms. Also can't forget contrarian tribal posturing - they take the opposition path because they're so much smarter, maverick thinkers that can see past the common perception of the "sheep." This is the path taken by fools like Elon Musk.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

#modern politics #ukraine

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Nick Anderson

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 17, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 18, 2024

Yesterday on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, Miles Taylor wrote: “After 2016, I helped lead the US gov[ernmen]t response to Russia’s election interference. In 2024, foreign interference will be *worse.* Tech[nology is] more powerful. Adversaries more brazen. American public more susceptible. Political leaders across party lines MUST UNITE against this.” 

Taylor served as chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security under Trump. 

Today, Catherine Belton of the Washington Post reported on a secret 2023 document from Russia’s Foreign Ministry calling for an “offensive information campaign” and other measures that attack “‘a coalition of unfriendly countries’ led by the United States. Those measures are designed to affect “the military-political, economic and trade and informational psychological spheres” of Russia’s perceived adversaries. 

The plan is to weaken the United States and convince other countries, particularly those in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, that the U.S. will not stand by its allies. By weakening those alliances, Russian leaders hope to shift global power by strengthening Russia’s ties to China, Iran, and North Korea and filling the vacuum left by the crumbling democratic alliances (although it is not at all clear that China is on board with this plan).

According to Belton, one of the academics who advised the authors of the Russian document suggested that Russia should “continue to facilitate the coming to power of isolationist right-wing forces in America,” “enable the destabilization of Latin American countries and the rise to power of extremist forces on the far left and far right there,” increase tensions between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, and “escalate the situation in the Middle East around Israel, Iran and Syria to distract the U.S. with the problems of this region.” 

The Russian document suggests that the front lines of that physical, political, and psychological fight are in Ukraine. It says that the outcome of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine will “to a great degree determine the outlines of the future world order.” 

Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky told Belton: “The Americans consider that insofar as they are not directly participating in the war [in Ukraine], then any loss is not their loss. “This is an absolute misunderstanding.”

Media and lawmakers, including those in the Republican Party, have increasingly called out the degree to which Russian propaganda has infiltrated American politics through Republican lawmakers and media figures. Earlier this month, both Representative Michael R. Turner (R-OH), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, and Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned about Russian disinformation in their party. Turner told CNN’s State of the Union that it is “absolutely true” that Republican members of Congress are parroting Russian propaganda. “We see directly coming from Russia attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor.” When asked which Republicans had fallen to Russian propaganda, McCaul answered that it is “obvious.” 

That growing popular awareness has highlighted that House Republicans under House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) have for six months refused to pass a national security supplemental bill with additional aid for Ukraine, as well as for Israel and the Indo-Pacific, and humanitarian aid to Gaza. After the Senate spent two months negotiating border security provisions House Republicans demanded, Republicans killed that bill with the provisions at Trump’s direction, and the Senate then passed a bill without those provisions in February.

Johnson has been coordinating closely with former president Trump, who has made his admiration for Russia and his disregard for Ukraine very clear since his people weakened their support for Ukraine in the 2016 Republican Party platform. Johnson is also under pressure from MAGA Republicans in the House, like Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who oppose funding Ukraine, some of them by making statements that echo Russian propaganda.

While the White House, the Pentagon, and a majority of both chambers of Congress believe that helping Ukraine defend itself is crucial to U.S. security, Johnson has refused to take the Senate measure up, even though the House would pass it if he did. But as Ukraine’s ability to defend itself has begun to weaken, pressure for additional aid has ramped up. At the same time, in the wake of Iran’s attack on Israel last weekend, Republicans have suddenly become eager to provide additional funds to Israel. It began to look as if Johnson might bring up some version of foreign aid.

But discussions of bringing forward Ukraine aid brought not only Greene but also Thomas Massie (R-KY) to threaten yesterday to challenge Johnson’s speakership, and there are too few Republicans in the House to defend him. 

Today, Johnson brought forward not the Senate bill, but rather three separate bills to fund Israel, the Indo-Pacific, and Ukraine, with pieces that House Republicans have sought. A fourth bill will include other measures Republicans have demanded. And a fifth will permit an up-or-down vote on most of the measures in the extreme border bill the House passed in 2023. At the time, that measure was intended as a signaling statement because House Republicans knew that the Democratic Senate would keep it from becoming law.

Johnson said he expected to take a final vote on the measures Saturday evening. He will almost certainly need Democratic votes to pass them, and possibly to save his job. Democrats have already demanded the aid to Gaza that was in the Senate bill but is not yet in the House bills. 

Reese Gorman, political reporter for The Daily Beast, reported that Johnson explained his change of heart like this: “Look, history judges us for what we do. This is a critical time right now…  I can make a selfish decision and do something that is different but I'm doing here what I believe to be the right thing.… I think providing lethal aid to Ukraine right now is critically important.… I’m willing to take personal risk for that.”

His words likely reflect a changing awareness in Republican Party leadership that the extremism of MAGA Republicans is exceedingly unpopular. Trump’s courtroom appearances—where, among other things, he keeps falling asleep—are unlikely to bolster his support, while his need for money is becoming more and more of a threat both to his image and to his fellow Republicans. Today the Trump campaign asked Republican candidates in downballot races for at least 5% of the money they raise with any fundraising appeal that uses Trump’s name or picture. They went on: “Any split that is higher than 5% will be seen favorably by the RNC and President Trump’s campaign and is routinely reported to the highest levels of leadership within both organizations.”

Nonetheless, Greene greeted Johnson’s bills with amendments requiring members of Congress to “conscript in the Ukrainian military” if they voted for aid to Ukraine. 

A headline on the Fox News media website today suggested that a shift away from MAGA is at least being tested. It read: “Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot. She is trying to wreck the [Republican Party].” The article pointed out that 61% of registered voters disapprove of the Republican Party while only 36% approve. That approval rating has indeed fallen at least in part because of the performative antics of the extremists, among them the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that made him the first cabinet officer to be impeached in almost 150 years. Today the Senate killed that impeachment without a trial.

As soon as Johnson announced the measures, President Joe Biden threw his weight behind them. In a statement, he said: “I strongly support this package to get critical support to Israel and Ukraine, provide desperately needed humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, and bolster security and stability in the Indo-Pacific. Israel is facing unprecedented attacks from Iran, and Ukraine is facing continued bombardment from Russia that has intensified dramatically in the last month.

“The House must pass the package this week and the Senate should quickly follow. I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: We stand with our friends, and we won’t let Iran or Russia succeed.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Nick Anderson #War in Ukraine #Russia #Putin #the Putin Caucus #corrupt GOP #MAGA Republicans #National Security #strategic alliances #foreign policy

[pennsyltuckyheathen]

(via As Budget Talks Heat Up in Congress, Republicans Ramp Up Attacks on Climate Spending - Inside Climate News)

Turns out the unethical, backstabbing, morally bankrupt Republicans “deal” they made with the Debt Ceiling was all lies and bullshit.  They are the lowest form of life in the United States as they push to take food out of the mouths of poor children and screw grandma over on her social security and Medicare.  

Then they want to issue a death sentence for all of us.   Of course scumbag “Freedom Caucus” wants to keep everyone chained to fossil fuels and not do anything about Climate Change.  Can it be any more obvious that these morally reprehensible, low-life, corrupt Republicans are lackeys for the oil and gas companies. They should be required to wear the logos of all the organizations and companies who bribe them for their votes.  

It’s so fuckin sickening and infuriating!  Republicans are ruining the United States and any chances for a future. 

Fuck Republicans and Fuck Fossil Fuel Companies who own them. 

#CorruptGOP #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #FossilFuel #GOPTraitors #RightWingNuts #ObstructionCaucus #DeathAndDestructionCaucus #DregsOfThe21stCentury #FakePatriots

[female-malice]

Only 8 Republicans voted to remove McCarthy as Speaker.

And three of those 8 are leaders of the UAP Caucus. Burchett, Mace, and Gaetz. The fourth UAP Republican, Luna, was absent from the House during the vote.

Earlier in the year, those four asked McCarthy for a UAP select committee. And he wouldn't give them one. But he did say he might allow them to have additional UAP hearings. Ultimately, that promise must have been hollow because the UAP Caucus voted to remove him.

McCarthy also clearly has ties to military industrial complex puppet Mike Turner

Will the next Speaker be more open to the push for UAP transparency? Or will the next Speaker be even more corrupt and compromised than McCarthy?

Of course, I want the new Speaker to be one of the UAP Republicans. That would be brilliant. But not Gaetz! Pick one of the other ones lol

#i know there's more going on in politics than the UAP shit #but like... 3 out of 8 anti-McCarthy Republicans being UAP Republicans is interesting

[bopinion]

2024 / 16

Aperçu of the Week

"You can't knock on opportunity's door and not be ready."

(Peter Gene Hernandez, better known as Bruno Mars and my sons favorite soundtrack while he's cooking)

Bad News of the Week

Sport actually has nothing to do with politics. Because the competition is carried out by individuals who (can) stand outside of systems. Nevertheless, sport is often instrumentalized by politics by stylizing successful athletes as symbolic figures for the strength of a system. I can still remember the Olympic Games in the 70s and 80s very well, in which the athletes of the USA and the Soviet Union competed against each other in many ways as a priority. And Rocky IV, of course.

It is fitting that sports organizations have always been suspected of being corrupt - often rightly so, see FIFA. It is therefore clear that it is almost always not the athletes who are the problem, but the officials. Do you need proof? How about China and doping? Because there was a big boom this week, as a journalistic investigative team from ARD (the BBC of Germany) found out.

At a national swimming competition in China at the beginning of 2021, 23 swimmers tested positive in the mandatory doping tests - which means negative in this context. This was then covered up. With the knowledge of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). The agency did not consider it worth investigating the banned substance trimetazidine, for which the Russian figure skating prodigy Kamila Valiyeva was banned for four years in the same year. The Chinese swimmers, however, were not. In the following Summer Olympics in Tokyo, three of them won gold and two silver.

We can see that China today is what the Soviet Union (and to some extent the GDR) used to be - a regime that abuses even its top performers to score points at international level. The staff looking after athletes (including doctors who have long since thrown the Hippocratic Oath overboard) still have more say than the athletes themselves. An institution that was set up to prevent malpractice can also be corrupt. At the major sporting events this summer, first the European Men's Football Championships and then the Olympic Games in Paris, spectators will not know whether they are cheering on a fake. And the athletes themselves won't know whether the competition was fair at all.

Good News of the Week

At last, US weapons are back in Ukraine. For months, the Republican “Freedom caucus” in the House of Representatives had been standing on the brakes. And Ukraine lost. Because, as is generally the case in the NATO context, all other members cannot compensate for the loss of by far the most capable partner country. It is therefore a great relief that the rationalists in the USA have regained the upper hand. And are now giving the badly shaken Ukraine hope again.

The following still applies: if Putin can subjugate Ukraine or impose a dictated peace on it, he will not sit back contentedly in his armchair in the Kremlin and enjoy the day of victory. He will continue in his quest to bring the Soviet Union back from the dead. Even if the Baltic states are members of NATO, they would be his next victims (not to mention Moldova, for example). Because apparently he could simply allow himself to do this without being stopped. The democracy of the whole of Europe is being defended in Ukraine, that must not be forgotten. So my heartfelt thanks to the US Congress.

A positive side effect of all this is that the same financial package, which Joe Biden will undoubtedly sign as soon as possible, contains even more. Namely 26 billion US dollars for the suffering population in Gaza - in your face, Benjamin Netanyahu! And 8 billion for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region - in your face, Xi Jinping! The USA are back on the world stage where they belong. I would not have thought it, but I must now pay tribute to a member of the Republican establishment. So thank you, Speaker of the House James Michael “Mike” Johnson. Hopefully I'll get over it...

Personal happy moment of the week

My son was in trouble with a teacher. A misunderstanding - that had developed into a solid crisis due to a certain stubbornness on both sides - was now threatening to cost him his participation in a project that is important to him. I took his side and was called in for a “clarifying discussion”. This was then canceled because the teacher (probably looking for reinforcement and arguments) consulted with other teachers. And “received very positive feedback on his behavior”. Disciplinary measures were not taken “because he is so committed and keeps the group together.” So a serious accusation suddenly turned into high praise.

I couldn't care less...

...that a Belgian court acquitted a driver who was driving with a blood alcohol level of 2.1. Because he suffers from the extremely rare “home-brew syndrome”: the body produces alcohol itself, which leads to the usual symptoms such as reduced responsiveness etc. Anyone who is a danger to themselves and, above all, to others on the road should not be allowed to drive - for whatever reason. After all, the disability of no blind person is their own fault. But no court in the world would allow him to drive.

It's fine with me...

...that for the first time in the history of the USA a criminal trial is taking place against a (former) president. I don't care whether or not you can plead guilty to election interference by falsifying business records because of hush money payments to a porn star. I just wish that a proven notorious liar and cheat, who is also a sexist, racist, homophobe and incidentally “unfit for office”, would finally have to take responsibility for his actions in court.

As I write this...

...April lives up to its name: first you can go swimming and two days later it's snowing. Candles are set up in the vineyards to warm the tender buds. And the hedgehog that has been hibernating on the terrace under our barbecue probably thinks it has woken up too early. Allergy sufferers are happy about the abrupt end of the pollen season. But everyone misses spring.

Post Scriptum

Everyone gets their life from their mother. She is the primary caregiver that all humans have in their first perceptions. That's why I've never understood why so many men simply devalue this in the course of their lives - and grant women fewer rights than themselves. Poverty, discrimination and a lack of equal rights cost lives, according to the latest UN World Population Report.

Not only is there no progress towards equality, there is actually a decline. The rights of “women, girls and gender-diverse people are being pushed back more and more,” says Dr. Natalia Kanem (head of the United Nations Population Fund). Lack of representation and limited self-determination force one in four women under a male-dominated yoke. And sexual violence is a problem in almost every country in the world. No man can want that. Not for his mother, not for his sister, not for his daughter. And not for his wife either. Shame on you!

#thoughts #aperçu #good news #bad news #news of the week #happy moments #politics #bruno mars #sports #olympic games #china #doping #world anti-doping agency #soviet union #ukraine #gaza #taiwan #house of representatives #republicans #usa #mike johnson #school #belgium #alcohol #donald trump #court #april #mother #women’s rights #driving

[1americanconservative]

Greg Price

BREAKING: The Georgia Senate GOP just kicked State Sen. and

@FreedomCaucusGA

Vice Chair

@realColtonMoore

out of the Republican caucus. What was his crime? He called for a special session of the legislature to investigate corrupt Fulton County DA Fani Willis for weaponizing her office against President Trump. The

@GASenateGOP

is apparently more concerned with their own members trying to hold Fani Willis accountable than they are about a rogue prosecutor trying to steal the 2024 election away from the voters. What an absolute disgrace.

[qqueenofhades]

Dare you to, on the second-last day of Pride Month, write a big effortpost about all the people that Pride Month either moved to the Find Out stage or proceedings or flat-out assassinated. A necessary part of this post would be bemoaning that Pride Month missed Kissinger or some other monster. The reason would be to dare the universe to render your effortpost out of date by sniping someone just before the end of the month, after you post. Please, I beg of you, goad the universe into taking out one or two more than it intended!

Oh, I will do that right now for free!

JUNE 2023: Great month for justice, bad month for assholes!

Pat Robertson, notorious conservative Christian activist and long-time hate preacher: dies on June 8

Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, conducted a decades-long campaign of mail bombings and domestic terrorism in the name of protesting technology: dies on June 10

Silvio Berlusconi, notorious far-right ex-Italian PM and general fantastically corrupt shitheel: dies on June 12

Stockton Rush, billionaire libertarian businessman who actively ignored 1000 safety warnings about his crappy product and fired a whistleblower for saying so, notably got himself and 4 other people killed on June 18 and joins the hallowed Wikipedia list of inventors killed by their own invention

Honorable-not-quite-June-but-close mention: James G. Watt, Ronald Reagan's secretary of the interior and a rabid anti-environmentalist, died on May 27

John Eastman: conservative lawyer who actively advised and encouraged Trump to stage a coup: facing disbarment hearings in California

Oh yeah, that guy Trump: on June 8, was charged with 31 federal criminal counts under the Espionage Act, relating to his crimes with classified documents; 37 charges overall, which takes his felony haul to 71 (and counting);

Vladimir Putin: is not gonna have a fun time over the next few days over the fallout from the Wagner mercenary rebellion;

Andrew Tate, flagrant misogynist asshole: officially charged with rape and human trafficking in Romania;

Ron DeSantis: lost literally THREE different lawsuits over his terrible anti-LGBTQ laws; collapsed in the polls and his campaign is allegedly "close to being over" because he's so bad at it;

State of Arkansas: likewise had its attempted ban on gender-affirming care for minors permanently struck down

Marjorie Taylor Greene: the crazy House Freedom Caucus doesn't like her anymore, apparently, and wants to "purge" its members, including her (lolololol)

Man, that's all well and good, but it's really a shame that Pride Month 2023: This Time It's Personal didn't put a cherry on top by offing Henry Kissinger, or like, Clarence Thomas or Samuel Alito (or both, both, both is good)

Come on, Pride Month 2023.

What are you, a PUSSY?

#recklessprudence #ask #i WILL update this as needed #unless pride month 2023 wimps out #ahem #come on prove me wrong #you know you want to